Kuala Lumpur & Pulau Perhentian
Close your eyes and picture in your head the perfect tropical island. The Perhentian Islands were more perfect. I just spent the longest time in one place and wish I could have stayed longer. I went with only the cash in my pocket and once there realized that it had virtually no development, and therefore no banks or ATMs. It worked out fine though, as the little bungalow was only about 4 bucks a night, so my money was able to stretch the full 8 days.
I suppose Ill start at the beginning though. I got to KL and impressively found my way back to the hostel I had stayed at a few months before. It was going well until I tried to find busses leaving for the northeast; they were all full for the next day. I ended up getting a bit of a stomach bug from the stall foods, but nothing too serious, just kept me inside a bit more than I would have been. I still got to go out and see the impressive malls, the cultural chinatown, and the awesome Petronas Towers. I was ready to get out of the city though, so getting on the train (with enough leg room!) was a blessing, even though it was a 13 hour ride. A taxi and boat ride later I was in paradise.
The perhentian islands are small islands, with very few permenant inhabitants, if any. I would guess while I was there there were a couple hundred other tourists on the island, but many would be out diving or out of sight, and it was easy to get away to a secluded spot if I wanted. I met a cool guy from the UK, Simon, and we got along well so started hanging out together. Hes spending 6 weeks there to get his Dive Master training, which is probably one of the coolest certifications to have in the world, as he can now go to any tropical place with diving spots and come out of it with more money than he started with. I thought about trying to get my open water certification, but decided I would wait until I had a real job so I could afford to use it.
Anyways, life was amazing, and consisted mostly of snorkeling, skin diving, eating, playing volleyball, and chatting with other travelers about their experiences in other places, which is a great way to learn. I recognized a girl who was in the same program as me at UBC, so we ended up with a cool group of 6 that was very chill.
I will write more about the amazing snorkelling and skin diving when I finish island life, but in one word it was unbelievable.
Eventually though my money bottomed out so I along with the funny dutch dude, Bram, headed off north via boat-taxi-train-taxi-boat, (though he went to Ko Pha Ngan), and now here I am exactly 24 hours later on another island in Thailand called Ko Tao. Pulau Perhentian will be a touch act to follow, but we will see how it goes.
Hope y'all are as well as I,
George
I suppose Ill start at the beginning though. I got to KL and impressively found my way back to the hostel I had stayed at a few months before. It was going well until I tried to find busses leaving for the northeast; they were all full for the next day. I ended up getting a bit of a stomach bug from the stall foods, but nothing too serious, just kept me inside a bit more than I would have been. I still got to go out and see the impressive malls, the cultural chinatown, and the awesome Petronas Towers. I was ready to get out of the city though, so getting on the train (with enough leg room!) was a blessing, even though it was a 13 hour ride. A taxi and boat ride later I was in paradise.
The perhentian islands are small islands, with very few permenant inhabitants, if any. I would guess while I was there there were a couple hundred other tourists on the island, but many would be out diving or out of sight, and it was easy to get away to a secluded spot if I wanted. I met a cool guy from the UK, Simon, and we got along well so started hanging out together. Hes spending 6 weeks there to get his Dive Master training, which is probably one of the coolest certifications to have in the world, as he can now go to any tropical place with diving spots and come out of it with more money than he started with. I thought about trying to get my open water certification, but decided I would wait until I had a real job so I could afford to use it.
Anyways, life was amazing, and consisted mostly of snorkeling, skin diving, eating, playing volleyball, and chatting with other travelers about their experiences in other places, which is a great way to learn. I recognized a girl who was in the same program as me at UBC, so we ended up with a cool group of 6 that was very chill.
I will write more about the amazing snorkelling and skin diving when I finish island life, but in one word it was unbelievable.
Eventually though my money bottomed out so I along with the funny dutch dude, Bram, headed off north via boat-taxi-train-taxi-boat, (though he went to Ko Pha Ngan), and now here I am exactly 24 hours later on another island in Thailand called Ko Tao. Pulau Perhentian will be a touch act to follow, but we will see how it goes.
Hope y'all are as well as I,
George
posted by George at 6:21 PM
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